This map shows the change in the number of jobs in rural counties from January to February 2010. To see a bigger version, click on the map. Red counties lost jobs; green counties gained jobs. 36% of rural counties gained jobs in February.

Rural Counties Gain Jobs

Rural counties nationally added jobs between January and February 2010, after months of job losses. Unemployment rates dipped.

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Rural counties began adding jobs in February and, as a result, the unemployment rates in rural America dipped.

Unemployment in rural counties was still high in February, at 11.1%, far above the rural rate of 4.5% in October, 2007. But the rate was down slightly from the 11.2% rate in January.

The rural unemployment rate had been rising steadily since September, when the rate was 9.3%. In February, however, the nation added jobs, and rural communities got their share. Rural counties added more than 62,000 jobs from January to February, and in those same counties, there were 14,000 fewer unemployed.

Those job gains were not spread evenly across rural America, as the map above shows. The green counties showed job gains between January and February. (The darker the green, the more jobs were added.) Red counties lost jobs. (To see a bigger version of the map, click on the map or here.)

Seven counties reported job gains of more than 1,000. They are Poweshiek County, Iowa (2,561); Oktibbeha County, Mississippi (2,316); Jackson County, Illinois (1,776); Madison County, Idaho (1,451); Portage County, Wisconsin (1,241); McDonough County, Illinois (1,069); and Dunn County, Wisconsin (1,043).